J 


UC-NfitF 


GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS 

(STATE  AND  CITY) 


BY 

J.  1.  WYER,  JR. 


PEEPRINT  OF 

MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

CHAPTER  XXIII 


Slmerican  library  Slfiffiociation  |)ttijli0|)ing:  iSoatU 

78  E.  WASHINGTON  ST.,  CHICAGO 
1915 


A.L.A.  MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

Types  of  Chapters  and  Authors 

Libraries 

I.  * 'American  Library  History,"  Mr.  Bolton.    Printed. 

II.  "Library  of  Congress,"  Mr.  Bishop.    Printed. 

III.  "The  State  Librarj-,"  Mr.  Wyer.    Printed. 

IV.  "The  College   and  University  Library,"  Mr.  Wyer. 

Printed. 
V.    "Proprietary  and  Mercantile  Libraries,"  Mr.  Bolton. 

Printed. 
VI.     "The  Free  Public  Library,"  Miss  Lord.    Printed. 
VII.     "The  High-School  Library,"  Mr.  Ward.    Printed. 
VIII.     "Special  Libraries,"  Mr.  Johnston.    Nearly  ready. 

Organization 

and  Administration 

IX.  "Library  Legislation,"  Mr.  Yust.    Printed. 

X.  "Library  Architecture,"  Mr.  Eastman.    Printed. 

XI.  "Fixtures,  Furniture,  Fittings."    Unassigned. 

XII.  "Administration,"  Dr.  Bostwick.    Printed. 

XIII.  "Training  for  Librarianship,"  Miss  Plummer.    Printed. 

XIV.  "Library  Service,"  Dr.  Hill.    Printed. 

XV.    "Branch  Libraries  and  Other  Distributing  Agencies," 

Miss  Eastman.    Printed. 
XVI.    "Book  Selection,"  Miss  Bascom.    Printed. 
XVII.    "Order   and   Accession   Department,"   Mr.   Hopper. 

Printed. 
XVIII.    "Classification,"  Miss  Bacon.    In  hands  of  Committee. 
XIX.    "The  Catalog."    Unassigned. 
XX.    "Shelf  Department,"  Miss  Rathbone.    Printed. 
XXL    "Loan  Work,"  Mr.  Vitz.    Printed. 
XXII.    "Reference  Department,"  Dr.  Richardson.    Printed. 

XXIII.  "Government  Documents,"  Mr.  Wyer.    Printed. 

XXIV.  "Bibliography,"  Miss  Mudgk    Now  in  hand. 

XXV.    "Pamphlets,  Clippings,  Maps,  Music,  Prints."    Unas- 
signed. 
XXVI.    "Bookbindmg,"  Mr.  Bailey.    Printed. 

Special  Forms 
of  Work 

XXVII.  "Library  Commissions  and  State  Library  Extension,  or 

State  ^id  and  State  Agencies,"  Mr.  Wynkoop. 
Printed. 

XXVIII.  "The  Public  Library  and  the  Public  Schools,"  Mr.  Kerr. 
XXIX.    "Library  Work  with  Children,"  Miss  Olcott.    Printed. 

XXX.    "Library  Work  with  the  Blind,"  Mrs.  Delfino.    Well 

advanced. 
XXXI.    "Museums,  Lectures,  Art  Galleries,  and  Libraries," 
Mr.  Rae.    Now  in  hand. 
XXXII.    "Library  Printing,"  Mr.  Walter.    Printed. 


XXIII 

GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS 
(STATE  AND  CITY) 

J.  I.  WYER,  JR. 

New  York  State  Library 

OUTLINE 

Definition 

Government  documents  and  libraries 

Issue  and  distribution  (points  common  to  all  documents) 

Determined  by  organization  of  city,  state,  and  national  government 
Table  comparing  governmental  machinery  of  state,  city,  and  nation 
Form  of  issue 

Department  edition 
Collected  edition 
Manner  of  distribution 
By  states 
By  cities 
City  documents 
Local 

Those  of  other  cities 
Check-lists  and  indexes 
State  documents 

Printing  and  distribution 
Collected  edition 
Department  edition 
Check-lists  and  indexes 
What  kinds  of  state  documents  are  valuable  to  libraries 

Illustrative  list 
United  States  documents 
Treatment  by  libraries 
Receipt  and  recording 
Arrangement 
Bibliography 

DEFINITION 

A  "government  document"  (and  this  term  is  better  than 
the  too  commonly  used  "public  document")  is  any  paper, 
map,  pamphlet,  or  book,  manuscript  or  printed,  originating  in, 


302469 


2  MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

or  printed  with  the  imprint  of,  or  at  the  expense  and  by  the 
authority  of  any  office  of  legally  organized  government. 

Manuscript  government  documents,  commonly  called 
archives,  were  the  original  current  records  of  government 
business  and  are  the  unique  source  materials  of  histor}-.  Letter- 
files,  pay-rolls,  city  tax  lists,  office  records,  minutes  of  boards 
and  committees  are  examples  of  archive  material.  In  some 
European  countries,  American  states,  and  a  few  cities,  these 
manuscript  archives  are  highly  organized  and"  administered 
w4th  a  liberality  and  an  intelligence  commensurate  with  their 
importance.  Archives  or  manuscript  goverimient  documents 
are  continually  being  transformed  into  printed  government 
documents  as  when  the  Library  of  Congress  printed  the  Journals 
of  the  Continental  Congress  and  the  New  York  State  Library 
printed  the  Minutes  of  the  Colonial  Council  of  that  state. 

This  chapter  is  concerned  solely  with  American  printed 
government  documents,  for  it  is  only  printed  documents  that 
are  generally  available  for  library  use. 

GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS  AND  LIBRARIES 

In  this  country-,  libraries  are  the  chief  public  depositories 
of  the  printed  documents  of  the  national  government.  In 
nearly  every  commonwealth,  law  or  usage  provides  that  libraries 
shall  receive  some  or  all  state  documents.  Cities,  too,  are 
frequently  publishers  and,  because  it  is  seldom  effectively  done 
elsewhere,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  every  library  to  preserve  the 
printed  documents  of  its  own  local  government. 

There  are  some  large  libraries  that  collect  and  organize 
for  reference  use  all  the  documents  of  each  of  these  three  kinds. 
There  are  more  libraries  that  do  this  for  a  selection  from  them. 
There  is  no  library  so  special  in  aim  nor  so  small  that  it  is  not 
interested  in  some  of  them.  It  is  thus  only  in  the  libraries  of 
the  land  that  government  documents  are  collected  and  cared 
for  in  any  systematic,   comprehensive,   and  intelligent  way. 


GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS  3 

looking  toward  their  fullest  present  and  future  availability  for 
consultation.  The  casual  or  the  serious  student  who  wishes  to 
consult  more  than  one  or  two  current  documents  turns  from 
habit  and  indeed  of  necessity  to  the  nearest  library.  Nowhere 
but  in  libraries  is  any  serious  thought  given  to  the  acquisition, 
arrangement,  cataloging,  and  research  use  of  government 
documents,  and  that  this  treatment  of  them  may  be  facilitated 
both  national  and  state  governments  offer  special  privileges 
to  libraries.  As  government  documents  constitute  a  very 
special  kind  of  printed  matter,  a  kind,  too,  which  is  constantly 
growing  in  volume  and  importance,  so  they  present  peculiar 
problems  to  every  library  in  the  technical  and  bibliographical 
operations  which  are  necessary  to  make  them  most  useful. 
These  problems  will  vary  with  the  different  types  and  sizes  of 
libraries,  such  as  the  college  librar}^,  the  large  and  small  public 
library,  the  special  library  (law,  medicine,  insurance,  etc.), 
the  high-school  library;  they  will  vary  with  the  different  kinds 
of  documents,  as  national,  state,  and  local,  and  their  varying 
appropriateness  to  the  different  kinds  of  libraries;  to  some 
extent  they  will  vary  in  different  parts  of  the  country  because 
of  local  industries,  natural  resources,  geography,  or  geology. 

ISSUE  AND  DISTRIBUTION 

To  know  government  documents  it  is  necessary  to  know 
something  about  government,  the  more  the  better;  and  the 
official  and  necessary  background  for  an  intelligent  under- 
standing of  the  nature,  content,  and  significance  of  these  three 
classes  of  documents  and  the  ways  in  which  libraries  organize 
them  for  use  is  best  to  be  had  from  a  knowledge  of  the  organ- 
ization and  conduct  of  the  government  of  the  village,  city, 
state,  or  nation  whose  documents  are  in  hand. 

There  is  a  type  of  book  w^hich  gives  this  information.  For 
the  city  it  is  the  Manual  of  the  Common  Council,  for  the  state 


4  MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

it  is  the  Legislative  Manual,  commonly  called  the  Blue  or  Red 
Book,  for  the  nation  it  is  the  Congressional  Directory. 

These  are  neither  formal  treaties  on  the  theory  of  the  govern- 
ment of  state,  city,  or  nation,  nor  discussions  of  the  limits  of 
its  powers,  but  merely  bare  statements  of  its  administrative 
activities  with  a  Hst  of  the  different  offices  and  departments  of 
the  government,  their  duties  and  personnel.  They  are  books 
prepared  for  the  information  and  reference  use  of  the  members 
of  city  councils,  state  legislatures,  and  the  national  Congress. 

In  working  with  government  documents,  the  knowledge 
of  the  machinery  of  organized  government  is  important  from 
every  aspect. 

In  cataloging,  it  frequently  supplies  the  official  name  of 
the  issuing  office  with  information  as  to  changes  in  the  names 
and  affiliations  of  government  bureaus,  the  perplexing  genealogy 
of  government  offices. 

In  classffication,  it  describes  the  work  of  each  issuing 
department,  commission,  or  office,  hence  giving  a  clue  to  the 
contents  of  the  book  in  hand. 

In  reference  work,  it  tells  which  government  departments 
or  offices  do  work  on  specific  subjects,  for  example,  w^hich  state 
has  a  department  regulating  railroads,  telephones,  or  life 
insurance,  and,  if  no  special  department  exists,  which  state 
office  performs  comparable  duties.  Table  I  presents  in 
comparative,  tabular  form  the  usual  government  activities 
of  nation,  state,  and  city  in  this  countr>\ 

Before  considering  separately,  and  in  some  detail,  city, 
state,  and  national  documents,  it  is  well  to  note  peculiarities 
which  are  common  to  all  three  in  (a)  the  form  of  their  issue 
and  (b)  the  manner  of  their  distribution. 

a)  Form. — Copying  the  long-standing  practice  of  the 
national  government  (from  which  it  is  now  breaking  away), 
many  city  and  nearly  all  state  documents  of  the  sort  known  as 
congressional  or  legislative  documents — the  reports  of  officials 


GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS  5 

or  departments  made  to  the  chief  legislative  body — are  issued 
in  two  forms,  a  first  or  "department"  edition  and  a  later  or 
"collected"  edition.  The  "department"  edition  is  the  most 
numerous  and  is  used  for  general  distribution  and  when  it  is 
printed  a  smaller  number  of  additional  copies  are  laid  aside 
for  binding  in  the  "collected"  edition  which  is  issued  annually 
by  cities  and,  oftenest,  biennially  by  states  to  correspond  with 
their  legislative  sessions. 

This  "collected"  or  definitive  edition  is  distributed  more 
formally  to  libraries,  other  cities  and  states,  public  officers, 
schools,  etc.,  and  this  distribution  is  usually  provided  for  by 
law.  This  edition  is  usually  uniformly  bound  in  leather,  often 
the  documents  in  it  are  numbered  serially,  and  the  set  provided 
with  a  common  title-page,  table  of  contents,  and  index. 

These  "collected"  editions  are  seldom  bibliographically 
satisfactory,  being  made  up  usually  by  a  lowest-bidder  printer, 
a  temporary  political  official  who  is  careless  or  indifferent  or 
an  ex-officio  board  chiefly  interested  in  letting  a  printing  con- 
tract. To  be  satisfactory  for  library  use  such  a  "collected" 
edition  should  be 

1.  Complete;   omitting  none  of  the  regular  annual  documents. 

2.  Arranged  in  a  single  series,  each  document  numbered 
(preferably  with  the  same  number  each  year  for  the  peren- 
nial reports,  as  in  Massachusetts),  and  the  documents 
grouped,  roughly  at  least,  by  subjects,  as  Educational, 
Financial,  Charitable,  Public  Works,  etc. 

3.  Furnished  with  a  series  title-page  and  table  of  contents  in 
each  volume,  showing  on  title-page  the  title  of  series,  the 
period  covered,  number  of  volumes,  compiler,  place  and  date 
of  publication,  printer's  name,  and  on  the  table  of  contents 
a  numerical  list  of  all  documents  forming  the  set  with  the 
number  of  volume  in  which  each  appears. 

4.  Each  separate  document  of  over  thirty  or  fifty  pages  should 
have  its  own  detailed  index. 


6  MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

5.  Each  volume  should  have  at  the  end  a  thoroughly  good  index 
to  the  entire  set  or  series. 

6.  Bound  in  stout  leather  or  better  in  buckram  or  canvas  and 
each  volume  lettered  on  the  back  with  the  name  of  the  city 
or  state,  date,  contents  of  volume,  and  title  of  series  with 
number  of  volume  or  documents. 

b)  Manner  of  Distribution. — The  distribution  of  all  govern- 
ment documents,  national,  state,  and  city,  is  illogical,  unsyste- 
matic, and  wasteful.  Too  many  people  have  a  hand  in  it — 
congressmen,  legislators,  issuing  offices,  state  and  city  libraries, 
various  city  officers,  etc.,  all  send  out  documents  with  no  checks 
on  each  other.  It  lacks  centralization.  It  is  worst  in  our 
cities  and  best  in  the  distribution  of  our  national  documents. 
There  is  little  well-considered  legislation  governing  it  in  either 
cities  or  states,  and  such  scattered  provisions  of  law  or  ordi- 
nance as  affect  the  distribution  of  documents  are  fortuitous 
and  unimportant.  In  cities  the  city  clerk  is  usually  charged 
by  law  with  the  custody  and  distribution  of  official  documents, 
but  the  work  is  done  perfunctorily  and  documents  desired  can 
usually  be  had  more  surely  from  the  issuing  office.  In  states 
the  law  usually  lays  it  upon  the  secretary  of  state,  and  because 
it  has  usually  been  indifferently  performed  in  that  office,  the 
state  library  has  latterly  and  often  informally  come  to  be  the 
chief  agent  for  the  state  in  such  matters. 

This  tendency  to  lodge  official  distribution  of  state  docu- 
ments with  the  state  library  seems  to  be  a  proper  and 
commendable  one.  It  is  better  acquainted  with  the  bibliog- 
raphy of  such  documents  than  any  other  state  agency. 
The  continuity  of  administration  insuring  necessary  care  in 
compiling,  continuing,  and  revising  mailing  lists  is  greater 
than  in  any  other  state  department.  It  would  be  well  if 
in  all  states  laws  could  be  enacted  which  would  definitely  fix 
the  distribution  of  state  documents  as  a  function  of  the  state 
library. 


GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS  7 

In  a  few  states  the  library  commission  has  been  designated 
by  law  or  has  assumed  without  objection  the  business  of  dis- 
tributing state  documents  to  libraries. 

CITY  DOCUMENTS 

Local  documents. — By  this  term  is  meant  the  official  pub- 
lications, the  administrative  and  business  records,  of  the  village, 
city,  town,  or  county  (whatever  the  primary  political  district 
may  be)  in  which  the  library  is  situated  and  which  it  serves  as 
its  chief  and  immediate  constituency.  At  least  one  library  in 
each  such  political  district  should  make  the  completest  possible 
collection  of  its  public  documents.  They  will  usually  be  in 
printed  form,  yet  the  local  library  should  welcome  manu- 
script records  which  are  not  as  well  cared  for  or  are  not  more 
appropriate  in  the  city  hall  or  courthouse.  In  very  small 
places  public  documents  will  often  appear  in  fugitive  and 
informal  shape.  The  village  treasurer's  report  may  be  printed 
only  in  one  local  paper,  the  report  of  the  library  in  another. 
Some  or  even  all  of  the  city  departments  may  issue  separate 
pamphlet  reports  which  are  never  collected  into  one  volume. 
It  is  likely  that  no  officer  or  institution  will  take  as  much  interest 
in  preserving  these  reports  as  the  local  library,  for  the  fre- 
quently changing  officers  of  a  local  government  pay  slight  heed 
to  keeping  a  full  set  of  such  documents.  They  may  be  pre- 
served either  by  a  public  library  or  perhaps  with  even  greater 
propriety  by  a  historical  society  library.  Such  material  should 
be  kept  in  a  separate  room  or  alcove  and  may  well  form  part  of 
the  local  history  collection  which  should  be  a  feature  of  every 
library  and  which  easily  may  be  made  a  matter  of  considerable 
pride  and  interest.  Besides  the  local  government  documents, 
this  collection  will  contain  scrapbooks,  the  files  of  the  town 
papers,  portraits  or  photographs  of  local  people  and  places, 
books  by  local  writers,  and  books  and  pamphlets  printed  in  the 
town.     Its  scope  may  even  be  extended  to  include  relics  which 


8  MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

are  genuine  and  not  too  unwieldy.  Much,  even  of  the  docu- 
ment material,  which  will  go  to  form  such  a  collection  appears 
in  frail  and  ephemeral  form,  and  constant  vigilance  alone  can 
get  worthy  results. 

Such  a  collection  should  be  arranged  for  easy  and  effective 
exhibit  as  a  museum  and  for  use  with  schools.  It  w^ill  often 
interest  local  people  of  means  in  gifts  and  bequests  of  money 
or  material. 

Documents  of  other  cities. — Few  public  libraries,  and  those 
the  largest,  will  collect  many  documents  of  other  cities.  The 
larger  college  and  reference  libraries  will  try  to  get  sets  of 
reports  of  such  cities  and  city  officers  as  deal  with  current 
questions  of  municipal  government  or  control,  especially  on 
social  and  political  topics.  A  very  few  of  the  largest  libraries 
will  try  to  collect  all  city  documents.  There  are  no  general 
indexes  or  check-lists  of  city  documents,  and  the  only  essays 
tow^ard  such  bibliographic  records  which  are  known  to  the 
writer  are: 

List  of  works  relating  to  city  charters,  ordinances,  and  collected  docu- 
ments.   383  pp.    New  York  PubHc  Library,  1913, 

the  title  of  which  would  more  accurately  describe  this  labo- 
rious and  useful  compilation  if  it  omitted  the  words  ''w^orks 
relating  to,''  and 

Official  documents  of  the  city  of  Pittsburgh:  tentative  list,  February,  191 3. 
16  pp.     Carnegie  Library  of  Pittsburgh. 

There  is  no  regular  list  of  current  issues  of  city  documents, 
and  their  distribution  is  not  so  well  organized  as  that  of  state 
and  national  documents.  It  is  therefore  very  difficult,  not 
only  to  learn  of  their  issue,  but  to  secure  copies  regularly  or 
even  to  know  what  pieces  are  required  to  form  complete  sets. 
Unlike  the  general  government  and  some  states,  few  cities 
designate   a   special   officer   or   department   to   supervise   the 


GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS 


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lo  MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

printing  and  distribution  of  their  documents.  Each  document 
usually  is  to  be  had  only  by  direct  application  to  the  issuing 
office  and  often  not  even  then. 

Check-lists  and  indexes. — WTiile  city  documents,  more  than 
those  of  either  state  or  nation,  are  business  records,  not  research- 
publications,  yet  an  increasing  volume  of  expert  and  significant 
matter  is  being  issued  in  city  documents,  and  it  will  not  be  long 
before  bibliographers  in  municipal  reference  libraries  or  in 
libraries  having  great  document  collections,  must  prepare  the 
check-lists  and  indexes  needed  to  facilitate  their  collection  and 
use  as  reference  material.  At  present  such  data  exist  only  in 
the  card  or  printed  catalogs  of  great  libraries  and  to  a  very 
slight  extent  in  our  current  trade  bibliography. 

In  form  of  issue  and  unsystematic  arrangements  for  distri- 
bution, city  documents  present  a  situation  even  more  dis- 
couraging than  state  or  national  documents.  There  has 
been  within  the  past  twenty  years  a  remarkable  civic  awaken- 
ing in  this  country.  This  has  produced  a  considerable  and 
important  body  of  valuable  literature  published  by  city  govern- 
ments. The  arrangements  for  printing  and  distributing,  how- 
ever, are  not  characterized  by  that  efficiency  which  has  been 
sought  in  civic  life  in  the  past  generation.  A  somewhat  more 
detailed  statement  of  the  chaos  and  varying  practices  in  the 
publication  of  city  documents  is  found  in  Kaiser,  J.  B.,  ''Ameri- 
can municipal  documents,"  Special  Libraries,  June  19 13  (also 
printed  in  Library  Journal,  38:453-56),  while  more  exact 
information  as  to  the  printing,  sale,  and  distribution  of  munici- 
pal documents  in  American  cities  of  more  than  25,000  popu- 
lation is  presented  in  tabular  form  by  Frank  G.  Bates  in  Special 
Libraries  for  January  19 14,  5:12-21. 

The  same  specifications  for  a  satisfactory  "collected" 
edition  that  are  set  down  in  a  previous  paragraph  apply  with 
as  much  force  to  city  as  to  state  documents,  although  outside 
of  New  England,  and  particularly  Massachusetts,  few  cities, 


GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS  II 

save  the  very  largest,  regularly  prepare  a  collected  edition  of 
their  documents. 

STATE  DOCUMENTS 

Printing  and  distribution. — The  printing  and,  with  lesser 
detail,  distribution  of  state  documents  are  prescribed  by  statute 
in  all  states.  These  four  dozen  laws,  though  much  alike  in  the 
main,  yet  embody  a  great  number  of  diverse  minor  provisions. 
There  is  no  state  printing  law  which  can  be  pointed  to  as 
a  model,  although  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania  have 
statutes  representing  much  study  which  secure  pretty  satis- 
factory results.  Few  of  the  states  have  codified  the  printing 
law  which  is  thus  a  group  of  laws  passed  at  different  times, 
which  lack  unity  and  which  in  many  cases  do  not  apply  most 
effectively  to  present  administrative  conditions.  The  three 
principal  common  features  are:  (i)  printing  let  under  contract 
to  the  lowest  bidder;  (2)  provision  for  an  official  or  ''collected" 
edition  of  the  principal  documents;  (3)  principal  distribution 
reserved  by  members  of  the  legislature  as  an  official  perquisite. 
Any  change  in,  or  reform  of,  document  printing  and  distri- 
bution in  any  state  must  be  grounded  upon  a  careful  study  of 
its  present  laws  regulating  these  matters  and  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  practice,  often  extra-legal,  which  now 
obtains. 

Collected  edition. — Practically  all  states  issue  their  docu- 
ments in  two  editions,  the  ''department"  edition  and  the 
"collected"  edition.  The  former,  comprising  nearly  all  of  the 
total  edition,  is  distributed  by  legislators  and  through  the 
different  issuing  departments.  The  latter  is  in  most  states 
only  large  enough  to  supply  a  few  state  officials  and  institutions 
and  the  state  libraries  of  all  the  other  states  in  exchange.  This 
edition  is  in  many  cases  prepared  by  or  under  direction  of  the 
state  library  and  the  exchanges  with  other  states  are  almost 
always  conducted  by  it.  The  binders'  title  is  variously  Execu- 
tive Documents,  Legislative  Documents,  Public  Documents. 


12  MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

Department  edition. — While  in  a  few  states  there  is  a  notice- 
able and  increasing  tendency  to  enlarge  the  functions  of  the 
state  library,  or  the  state  library  commission  in  document 
distribution,  yet  in  no  state  is  it  as  completely  and  effectively 
centralized,  there  or  in  any  office,  as  it  should  be.  The 
reasons,  not  far  to  seek,  are  the  reluctance  of  members  of  the 
legislature  to  part  with  this  attractive  perquisite,  and  the 
natural  feeling  of  issuing  departments  that  they  can  distribute 
their  o^\^l  publications  better  than  anyone  else  can  do  it  for 
them. 

In  view  of  this  lack  of  any  definite  or  uniform  distributing 
agency  in  the  various  states,  libraries  desiring  copies  of  the 
"department"  edition  can  do  no  better  than  to  apply  to  the 
state  department  or  office  which  issues  the  document.  If  this 
brings  neither  reply  nor  document  a  letter  to  the  state  library 
w^ill  usually  bring  one  or  the  other. 

Check-lists  and  indexes. — The  principal  bibliographic  helps 
to  a  knowledge  and  reference  use  of  state  documents  are  the 
following: 

Bowker,  R.  R.  State  publications;  a  provisional  list  of  the  official 
publications  of  the  several  states  of  the  United  States  from 
their  organization.  103 1  pp.  New  York,  1908. 
Reviewed  in  Library  journal,  34:459.  An  account  of  some 
difficulties  encountered  in  its  compilation  is  in  Library  journal 
30:233-38. 

Hasse,  A.  R.  Index  of  economic  material  in  documents  of  the  states 
of  the  United  States  to  1904.  Carnegie  Institution  1907+. 
Reviewed  in  Library  journal,  32:377  and  33:466.  There  is  to 
be  a  separate  volume  for  each  state,  of  which  1 1  have  appeared 
for  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  New  York,  Delaware,  Ohio,  Kentucky,  California,  and 
Illinois. 

Library  of  Congress.     Monthly  list  of  state  publications.    January 
1910+. 
A  full  index  is  issued  at  the  end  of  each  year. 


GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS  13 

A  few  states,  usually  through  the  state  library,  library 
commission,  or  state  historical  society,  have  issued  tentative 
check-lists  of  official  publications  but  they  are  seldom  full  or 
accurate  enough  to  be  of  much  use. 


VALUE  TO  LIBRARIES 

While  every  library  will  pay  special  heed  to  collecting  all 
the  documents  of  its  own  city^  the  documents  of  its  own  state 
will  not  be  collected  with  the  same  zeal  or  completeness  by  any 
but  the  larger  libraries.  Beyond  the  borders  of  the  state, 
however,  and  as  a  class,  state  documents  are  of  far  more  impor- 
tance than  city  documents  and  to  a  far  greater  number  of 
libraries.  Few  except  state  libraries  and  the  largest  reference 
libraries  collect  the  documents  of  all  states,  although  every 
library,  even  the  smallest,  will  find  use  for  some  of  the  documents 
of  its  own  state  and  occasionally  for  one  from  another  state, 
and  many  medium-sized  and  larger  libraries  will  wish  to  get 
regularly  reports  from  certain  departments  in  other  states  or 
(still  oftener)  occasional  publications  of  a  social  or  scientific 
sort.  Speaking  generally,  but  perhaps  with  as  much  definite- 
ness  as  the  matter  will  allow,  the  kind  of  state  documents  that 
small  libraries  will  find  useful  are  statistical  publications  like 
the  Legislative  Manual  or  Blue  Book  and  the  report  of  the 
treasurer  or  auditor  presenting  the  annual  budget  with  state- 
ment of  sources  of  revenue,  receipts,  and  disbursements; 
popular  but  authoritative  science  such  as  is  found  in  the  bulle- 
tins of  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment  stations,  in  the 
reports  of  forest,  fish,  and  game  commissions  and  geological 
surveys;  historical  matter  such  as  the  accounts  of  memorial 
expositions,  celebrations,  and  dedications  and  publications  of 
a  political,  social,  or  economic  nature.  The  following  titles 
of  a  few  documents  issued  by  New  York  state  during  the  past 
few  years  will  illustrate  better  than  any  statement  the  type 


14  MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

of  occasional  state  publication  issued  by  all  states,  which  is  of 
interest  to  all  libraries  in  the  state  and  often  to  those  outside: 

Beach.    Apples  of  New  York.     2V.     Geneva  experiment  station. 

Horner.     The  American  flag.     Education  department. 

Lincoln.     Messages  of  the  governors  of  New  York.     iiv.     State 

library. 
Felt.     Control  of  flies  and  other  household  insects.     State  museum. 
Manual  for  the  use  of  the  legislature  of  the  state  of  New  York  (annual) 

Secretary  of  state. 
New  York  arbor  day  annual.    Education  department. 
Whitford.    History  of  New  York  canals.     2V.     State  engineer. 
Eaton.    Birds  of  New  York.     2V.     State  museum. 
Session  laws;  issued  annually  in  New  York,  biennially  in  most  other 

states,  and  usually  distributed  by  the  secretary  of  state. 
Maps  of  roads,   forests,   quarries,   notable  scenic  regions,   rivers, 

harbors,  etc.,  are  issued  from  time  to  time  by  all  states  and  are 

of  interest  to  all  libraries. 

Even  though  it  does  not  try  to  get  all  of  them,  every  library 
should  have  as  complete  a  list  as  possible  of  the  documents  of 
its  own  state  and  should  follow,  whenever  there  is  any  way  to 
do  so,  the  current  state  publications.  In  some  states,  a  list 
of  current  state  documents  likely  to  be  of  interest  to  libra- 
ries is  regularly  printed  in  the  bulletin  of  the  state  library  com- 
mission. Every  library,  too,  should  be  accurately  acquainted 
with  the  lending  and  distributing  facilities  offered  by  the  state 
library  or  by  the  nearest  large  library  which  keeps  a  com- 
plete set. 

UNITED  STATES  DOCUMENTS 

This  chapter  logically  should  cover  United  States  govern- 
ment documents  as  fully  as  state  and  city  documents  are  dis- 
cussed above.  That  it  does  not  do  so  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  American  Library  Association  Publishing  Board  has  issued 
and  keeps  in  stock  as  Handbook  7  the  present  author's  little 
pamphlet  on  ''United  States  government  documents  in  small 


GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS  15 

libraries."  The  fourth  edition  of  this,  revised  to  March  19 14, 
has  recently  been  printed  and  it  seems  needless  to  reprint  it 
in  this  chapter. 

TREATMENT  BY  LIBRARIES 

Records. — An  accurate  record  of  the  library's  document 
holdings  is  desirable.  This  record  may  be  its  shelf-list,  its 
author  catalog,  or  a  check-list,  preferably  on  cards.  In  only 
the  very  largest,  most  highly  specialized  libraries  should  all 
three  be  required.  The  most  useful  of  these  three  records  for 
the  small  library  is  the  shelf-list  (which,  for  government  docu- 
ments, may  be  made  on  a  standard-sized  card  specially  printed 
like  the  samples  shown  below),  which  should  suffice  in  all 
libraries  up  to  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  volumes.  Libraries 
larger  than  this  will  begin  to  feel  the  need  of  an  alphabetical 
list  of  serials  to  supplement  the  classed  order  of  the  shelf-list 
and  this  will  probably  take  the  form  of  author  cards  in  the 
public  catalog.  Here  again  the  form  of  the  card  may  best 
resemble  a  check-list  card  or  the  card  used  to  catalog  or  note 
the  receipt  of  periodicals  and  other  serials;  a  card  which  empha- 
sizes the  record  of  the  single  volume  rather  than  the  library's 
total  holding. 

As  both  the  shelf-list  and  the  catalog  are  standard  records, 
only  the  check-list  will  be  described  here.  Of  course  the 
easiest  and  a  wholly  satisfactory  way  is  to  check  all  the  library's 
holdings  against  some  reasonably  accurate  printed  list,  noting 
the  variations  on  the  margin  or  on  interleaves.  The  third 
edition  of  the  Check-List  of  United  States  Government  Docu- 
ments, the  detailed  lists  of  collected  state  documents  in  the 
prefaces  to  the  different  volumes  of  Miss  Hasse's  Index,  the 
list  of  Wisconsin  documents  issued  a  few  years  ago  by  the  state 
library  commission  are  examples  of  check-lists  which  easily 
may  be  used  thus.  There  are  few  such,  however,  and  the 
large  library  maintaining  a  separate  and  extensive  documents 


i6 


MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 


NORTH  CAROLINA.    AUDITOR 
Biennial  Report 


I87I 

I88I 

I89I 

I90I 

I9II 

1872 

1882 

1892 

1902 

I9I2 

1873 

1883 

1893 

1903 

I9I3 

1874 

1884 

1894 

1904 

I9I4 

187s 

1885 

189s 

I90S 

I9I5 

1876 

1886 

1896 

1906 

I9I6 

1877 

1887 

1897 

1907 

I9I7 

1878 

1888 

1898 

1908 

I9I8 

1879 

1889 

1899 

1909 

I9I9 

1880 

1890 

1900 

I9IO 

1920 

NEW  YORK  (STATE) .    MUSEUM 
Bulletin 


SI 

61 

71 

81 

91 

52 

62 

72 

82 

92 

53 

63 

73 

83 

93 

54 

64 

74 

84 

94 

55 

65 

75 

85 

95 

56 

66 

76 

86 

96 

57 

67 

11 

87 

97 

58 

68 

78 

88 

98 

59 

69 

79 

89 

99 

60 

70 

80 

90 

100 

The  above  card  may  also  be  single-spaced  so  as  to  hold  100  numbers. 

KANSAS.    INSURANCE  SUPERINTENDENT 

Annual  Report 


I87I 

I88I 

I89I 

I90I 

I9II 

1872 

1882 

1892 

1902 

I9I2 

1873 

1883 

1893 

1903 

I9I3 

1874 

1884 

1894 

1904 

I9I4 

1875 

1885 

1895 

1905 

I9I5 

1876 

1886 

1896 

1906 

I9I6 

1877 

1887 

1897 

1907 

I9I7 

1878 

1888 

1898 

1908 

I9I8 

1879 

1889 

1899 

1909 

I9I9 

1880 

1890 

1900 

I9I0 

1920 

GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS  17 

department  will  prefer  the  specially  printed  cards  shown  above, 
the  peculiar  uses  of  which  are  quickly  apparent.  Such  a  check- 
list, which  is  fully  described  in  Public  Libraries,  15:181-84, 
exclusively  for  the  library  staff,  will  be  freely  annotated  with 
the  bibliographic  eccentricities  which  abound  in  government 
documents. 

Arrangement. — In  any  but  the  very  largest  libraries,  that 
not  only  preserve  collected  editions  but  duplicate  these  with 
separate  departmental  editions,  government  documents  will 
be  shelved  like  any  other  books.  A  separate  room,  alcove,  or 
shelf  for  such  books  is  not  necessary.  Whether  single  volumes 
or  continuing  sets,  they  will  be  classified  with  other  books  on 
the  same  subjects  on  the  safe  principle  that  all  the  material 
in  a  library  on  the  same  subject  should  be  in  the  fewest  possible 
different  places. 

In  the  largest  libraries,  which  keep  practically  all  govern- 
ment documents,  the  matter  of  arrangement  presents  too  many 
different  aspects  for  consideration  in  a  pamphlet  of  this  size. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

GENERAL 

Fuller,  E.  D.     United  States,  state  and  town  documents  in  small 

libraries.    Library  journal,  23 :  564-66,  1898. 
Tilton,  A.  C.     Printed  series  cards  for  public  documents.     Public 

libraries,  15:181-84,  1910. 

Describes  a  method  of  recording  public  documents  on  specially 

ruled  cards.    Applicable  to  city,  state,  or  federal  documents. 

STATE  DOCUMENTS 

For  fuller  list  on  state  documents,  see  "Library  work;  cumu- 
lated 1905-1911,"  pp.  373-74.  H.  G.  T.  Cannons'  list  on  govern- 
ment documents  in  his  ''Bibliography  of  library  economy,"  1910, 
pp.  306-9,  includes  material  on  state  documents.  For  bibliographies 
of  state  documents,  see  A.  B.  Kroeger's  "Guide  to  the  study  and 
use  of  reference  books,"  1908,  pp.  97-98. 


l8  MANUAL  OF  LIBRARY  ECONOMY 

Hasse,  A.  R.  How  may  government  documents  be  made  more 
useful  to  the  public?  Library  journal,  26:8-13,  1901;  State 
documents,  pp.  11-13. 

■ .     Subject  headings  for  state  documents.     Library  journal, 

31:0123-26,  1906. 

National  association  of  state  libraries.     Proceedings,  1899-date. 

This  association  has  always  had  committees  on  exchange  and 
distribution  of  state  documents  and  on  systematic  bibliography 
of  state  official  literature.  The  reports  of  these  committees, 
the  ensuing  discussion,  and  other  papers  read  before  this  body, 
all  relate  to  state  documents  as  they  are  considered  by  state 
libraries. 

Check-Lists  and  Indexes 

Babbitt,  C.  J.  Hand  list  of  legislative  sessions  and  session  laws, 
statutory  revisions,  compilations,  codes,  and  constitutional 
conventions  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  several  states  to 
May  191 2.     634  pp.     O.  Massachusetts  State  Library.     191 2. 

Bowker,  R.  R.  State  publications;  a  provisional  list  of  the  official 
publications  of  the  several  states  of  the  United  States  from  their 
organization.     103 1  pp.     New  York  City.     1908. 

Hasse,  A.  R.  Index  to  economic  material  in  documents  of  the  states 
of  the  United  States  to  1904.     Carnegie  Institution.     1907 +  . 

Library  of  Congress.  Monthly  list  of  state  publications.  January 
1910+. 

CITY  DOCUMENTS 

Bates,    F.    G.     Municipal    ordinances    and    documents.     Special 

libraries,  5:12-21,  19 14. 

Tabular  exhibit  of  the  present  status  of  the  publication  and 

distribution  of  documents  in  American  cities  of  over   25,000 

population. 
Childs,     W.     T.     Baltimore's     municipal     journal.     Independent, 

April  17,  1913,  pp.  881-82. 
Hasse,  A.  R.    The  New  York  "City  Record."    Library  journal, 

32:207-8. 
Kaiser,  J.  B.     American  municipal   documents.     Special   libraries, 

June  1913,  and  Library  journal,  38:453-56. 


GOVERNMENT  DOCUMENTS  19 

Check-Lists 

Carnegie  librae  of  Pittsburgh.    Official  documents  of  the  city  of 

Pittsburgh;   tentative  list,  February  1903.     16  pp.    O. 
New  York  public  library.    List  of  works  relating  to  city  charters, 

ordinances     and     collected     documents.    383     pp.    Q.    New 

York.     19 13. 

Reprinted  from  the  Bulletin  of  the  New  York  Public  Library. 


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postpaid. 
Guide  to  reference  books.    Edited  by  Alice  B.  Kroeger.    Revised 

and  enlarged  edition.    Cloth,  $1.50  (postage,  11  cents). 
Cataloging  for  small  libraries.    By  Theresa  Hitchler.    New  and  greatly 

enlarged  edition.    Cloth,  $1.25. 
Hints  to  small  libraries.    By  Mary  W.  Plummer.    Cloth,  75  cents. 
Selected  list  of  music  and  books  about  music  for  pubUc  libraries. 

By  Louisa  M.  Hooper.    Paper,  25  cents. 
Aids  in  library  work  with  foreigners.    Compiled  by  Marguerite  Reid 

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LISTS  OF  FOREIGN  BOOKS 

Selected  list  of  Hungarian  books.    Paper,  15  cents. 

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French  fiction.    Paper,  5  cents. 

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LIBBART  HANDBOOKS 

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